How do they learn to fish?

I am reposting this post from the Dyfi osprey project, largely because of what it says about the young ospreys NOT needing to be taught to fish. This is a persistant misunderstanding around here, even being passed along to the public by people who claim to be knowledgable about ospreys. The parents do NOT teach them to fish. They innately know how and they will begin fishing when they are physiologically able. Males usually do it before females. The reintroduction here would not have worked if they needed to be taught to fish. I was one of the hack site attendants and after we translocated the chicks from northern Minnesota, I climbed up the hack tower everyday to provide food but I did NOT teach them to fish, and yet they all eventually began catching their own fish, at about the same time as the chicks in the wild with osprey parents. That doesn't mean they don't learn anything from their parents...I do believe they may follow Dad to his favorite fishing spot!

All Grown Up

Bore da - DAY 59

Here's a short video of Cerist taken yesterday evening - eight weeks exactly after she finally broke free of her egg shell.

Her 2½ day Bank Holiday vacation seems to have done her no harm and despite only fledging just five days earlier, she is now a frequent flier.

She now has the ability to deal with her own food and even her voice has broke. She is now capable of all the vocalisations of her parents that she's heard so much of over the last two months.

Cerist, along with her sister, will stay on the Dyfi for another month or so until the free food finally comes to an end. She will almost certainly not catch her own fish however during the next month, neither will she be 'taught' how to fish by either parent. She has all the fishing skills she will ever need in her life, safely embedded in her genes. She just doesn't know it yet.